“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” is a dutiful portrait of the South African leader that manages to squeeze some nice complexity in among a parade of stirring moments.

English actor Idris Elba is unerringly persuasive as Nelson Mandela, a well-known figure he doesn’t resemble much at all. Fellow Brit Naomie Harris is even more thrilling as Winnie Mandela, whose radicalization took a turn for the violent during her husband’s many years in prison and, in the film’s saddest and strongest sequences, continued after his release and rise to power.

Apartheid in all its evil, racist permutations is carefully chronicled throughout this appropriately epic-length adaptation of Mandela’s autobiography. Director Justin Chadwick (yes, another English person) does this with a deft, if often cliched, eye. But this is a much better mounted production than the recent “Winnie Mandela” in every way that counts.

A little less rhetoric and more natural-sounding dialogue would have been desirable. Then again, the general focus on one of the world’s great political struggles is something to be appreciated in its own right.

Due respect is given to Mandela’s practical humanism at the end, and believe me, you won’t feel like nitpicking after that.

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